1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning a papermachine fabric, in particular a dryer fabric having sticky contaminants.
2. Discussion of Background Information
An apparatus of the type mentioned at the beginning is known, for example from WO 97/02380. This apparatus, for cleaning a dryer fabric, has a device for removing contaminants from the dryer fabric in which water jets under high-pressure are applied to the dryer fabric transversely with respect to the running direction of the fabric. With the aid of these high-pressure water jets, contaminants are intended to be removed from the papermachine fabric. The disadvantage here is that the high-pressure water jets accelerate the degradation of the fabric and, to this extent, reduce the lifetime of the papermachine fabric. Usually, such cleaning of a papermachine fabric cannot be carried out during the operation of the paper machine because of the increased wetting of the fabric, i.e. the normal operation of the paper machine has to be interrupted in order to clean the papermachine fabric. This results in increased stoppage times. When the high-pressure water jets strike the outer side of the fabric, depending on the point at which they strike and the intensity with which they strike, it is possible for the case to occur in which the fabric cannot be cleaned completely of contaminants. This can result in more frequent cleaning times or, overall, longer stoppage times of the paper machine in order to clean the fabric. In order not to increase the level of moisture of the fabric as a result of the application of the high-pressure water jets, the presence of a drying device assigned to the fabric may also be necessary, resulting in increased expenditure.